Sheriff’s department welcomes drug dog

June 6, 2013

By Daniel Brunty

The Winston County Journal

The Winston County Sheriff’s Department would like to welcome the newest member of their law enforcement family to the county—Cade, the drug dog.

The Sheriff’s Department began their search for Cade when Officer Jimmy Lovorn approached Sheriff Jason Pugh about getting a drug dog for the county. Pugh told at the time a dog would be out of the budget. However, he told Lovorn and the other officers if they could find donations to purchase the animal then it could be done. After going to local businesses for donations for the dog, the deputies had raised enough for the purchase.

After receiving enough donations, Pugh went to the Winston County Board of Supervisors on May 6 and asked the board for permission to accept the donations for use to purchase the animal. The board accepted the motion to purchase the dog for use as a drug dog for the Sheriff’s Department. The cost for Cade was $6,000.

Cade was purchased from Southern Star Canine Training Center in Florence, TX, where they deal exclusively with rescue dogs. He is a lab mix and weighs a whopping 87 pounds.

Officer Neal Higgason spoke on what Cade would bring to the county with his skills. “He is trained on narcotics detection, tracking, and rescue,” Higgason said. “The rescue involves living beings that are possibly covered in debris from a natural disaster or collapsed building.”

Cade will also be used to track and rescue individuals who may have wandered off such as the elderly or young children. Knowing that Cade would be around people, it was important that he was friendly and would not harm someone.

“He is extremely active and friendly,” Higgason said. “He has been trained not to bite. So far he has not shown any aggression. He is great with kids. That is exactly what we were looking for.”

The Sheriff’s Dept. is already getting their money’s worth out of Cade during his brief stint in Winston County.

“He already has made some narcotics cases for us,” Higgason said. “His first night on the job he alerted us to a trunk of a vehicle and we ended up finding marijuana and scales hidden under the spare tire. We would not have found that if it would not have been for the dog.”

The department is looking to Cade to bring a whole new level of law enforcement as they look to reduce crime and protect the citizens of the county.

“We got high hopes that he will be a real asset for us,” Higgason said.

Officer Lovorn and Cade

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